


Martha

by John_Q_Sample



Category: Smile For Me (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:41:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22518667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Q_Sample/pseuds/John_Q_Sample
Summary: Martha's busy working on nursing and bettering herself as a person when she hears news of a kid she used to know in school - in connection with an alleged gas leak at a wellness retreat he tried to start.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21





	Martha

Red lipstick stains the rim of the coffee mug as Martha sips the warm beverage. In her other hand, she has a newspaper detailing the news from this morning. Her night shift at the hospital makes it hard for her to keep up with all the daytime news, so she likes to take moments like these to catch up with the world.

Upon reading the headline, she nearly drops the mug. Coffee spills out onto her hands, and she slams the mug down on the table, jostling more of the drink. She barely pays attention to it as she brings the newspaper closer to her eyes.

"Gas Leak At Wellness Retreat Sends Visitors Away"

It's a concerning headline, and even more concerning is the picture of a grinning man given the description "former dentist Dr. Boris Habit" in the caption. Martha's hands begin to shake as she reads over the article, detailing Boris's endeavors into some sort of wellness retreat that had an unidentified leak of laughing gas. Investigators are still determining the reason the laughing gas machine malfunctioned so severely, as well as why the wellness retreat had such a machine anyway...

Dr. Habit walks into the room. It's Boris's father. He's not quite her boss, but he's in a powerful enough position that he could easily pose as one. Even if that weren't the case, ever since Martha learned from her mother why Boris always came to school missing teeth and hiding bruises, she's always been terrified of the man. As if she could slip up and do something that would cause him to hurt her.

Or worse, anger him in some manner that winds up hurting Boris.

"Having fun with coffee?" Dr. Habit asks.

Martha blinks and stares at him. Then looks down at the mess she made. Letting out a breathless, nervous laugh, she begins cleaning up the coffee on the table. With the newspaper. Damn it.

"We have napkins."

"Yup, we sure do," Martha says, ignoring him. She wipes her mouth. Coffee smears her face, and red lipstick smears onto her hand.

Dr. Habit watches incredulously as Martha throws away the soaked newspaper, then dumps the rest of her coffee out into her sink.

"I should go," she says, "I have something I need to do."

She spends the rest of her break hiding in the bathroom.

Although she runs into Dr. Habit during the rest of her shift (frankly unavoidable), he seems unaffected by the news. Maybe he just hasn't had the chance to check out the newspapers and...hasn't happened to be around any of the TVs as they mentioned the event...Or he just really doesn't care. Considering the man's parenting style, she wouldn't be surprised if he was completely unconcerned with his son's safety.

It disgusts her.

Martha decides to use up a few of her vacation days to get the next days off.

She's exhausted through the following day and spends the entire time hunched over her computer doing research on the Habitat.

Habit's website is a perfect place to start, detailing from his point of view what a wondrous place the Habitat is or was supposed to be. There are also a few reviews from some of the people who had previously stayed there, many of them praising Boris for mending their smile, but some people do reflect concerns about the nature of the place and the...scariness of the man.

Martha never thought Boris to be scary. In fact, he used to be _shorter_ than him. He was just some kid who...Well, compared to some of the newer pictures she's seen of him, she can understand their concern. She can barely recognize the man.

There's lots more than the website online, too. Message boards. People from the Habitat contacting each other or discussing their theories for the place. Martha doubts the all-caps theory that the place is run by vampires, but she does get a good idea of the place and what it was like for the people living there.

Not exactly Happy, honestly.

Boris is going to be in a lot of hot water now, and Martha's frightened for him. This is the boy who would be frightened into tears by loud noises. (Okay, Martha was often the cause of those loud noises, but still.) Even if he's _different_ now, she's not sure how well anyone could handle what's going to happen with the end of the Habitat.

The next day, Martha gets in her car and goes to the place.

The place is in the mountains, a detail boasted in many reviews and advertisements. "Smell that fresh mountain 'air'!" is something Martha distinctly remembers being written somewhere; or was it a video? Anyway, Martha knows where the Habitat is, and it's a long drive away.

She's still tired switching back to a diurnal schedule, but she cranks the radio on and forces herself to pay attention to the empty road ahead.

The Habitat is easy to spot in the middle of the otherwise empty fountains. Once stepping out of the car, Martha becomes aware of three things:

1\. Her ears are popping like all holy hell.

2\. The air smells like laughing gas, a scent she'd recognize anywhere.

3\. The caution tape all over the place implies she's not wanted here.

However, there's no one to _enforce_ the caution tape, and anyway, it's all fallen to the ground, making the message null and void, right?

Martha reminds herself to wipe out her footprints in the sand on the way out.

The front Courtyard of the Habitat looks like a ghost town. There's a small pool with a "no swimming" sign, a giant screen depicting nothing but the color black (a lovely shade, though), and oddly enough, some flowers planted in pots around the area. Martha steps forward, moving around the little pool, and enters what she recognizes as the Carnival.

And there's...her.

The most concerning thing on the Habitat website was Martha's name, written out in the middle of a few different sentences, always surrounded by little kissy emoticons. Martha assumed it was a different woman who just happened to have the same name, and hey maybe Boris was dating her or something. (He had never shown an interest in any girls when they were "friends" but you never know.)

Then she learned of the machine.

In the newspapers she read, they always discussed a machine that puffed out laughing gas through chimneys, one that always shuddered and looked like it was made by an amateur, so a giant smile was not what Martha expected to find on the website. Why it's named Martha, why it's always called _lovely_ Martha with her glowing smile, why it's _here_ of all places...

It makes Martha shiver with fear.

She's always wanted to talk to Boris, go back and tell her how sorry she was for hurting him like that. Maybe now is the time. After all, he could probably use a friend, and...as long as he accepts her apology...Even if he didn't she wouldn't blame him...

Martha, the machine Martha, twitches, sending the human Martha bolting away.

**Author's Note:**

> i may comeback and revise this, mayhapz even making it a littl longer; until then uhm hav a nice day. yea


End file.
